


There Is No Pain

by Calicia (Merinnan)



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Challenge Response, DeForest Kelley tribute, Death from Old Age, Gen, Light Angst, originally posted to alt.startrek.creative, this fic is old enough to be at uni
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:01:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29839164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merinnan/pseuds/Calicia
Summary: Spock and Scotty sit with a dying McCoy.
Relationships: Leonard "Bones" McCoy & Montgomery "Scotty" Scott
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	There Is No Pain

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written both as a tribute to De, and as a reply to KIRNEH's challenge on ASC shortly after De's death.

Captain Montgomery Scott's steps slowed as he came closer and closer to the room. He was almost afraid of what he would see when he went in. After a few years of exploring the Alpha Quadrant in the shuttle that the captain of the new _Enterprise_ , Jean-Luc Picard, had 'loaned' him, Scotty had decided that he wanted to be reunited with those of his friends still alive in the 24th century. He'd returned to Federation space, and docked at the first Starbase he came across. From there, he contacted Starfleet Medical, looking for McCoy.

Starfleet Medical had put him onto McCoy's daughter, Joanna, who, after getting over her shock at seeing a person she thought to be dead for seventy years or more, had told him of her father's condition. Scotty had left the Starbase for Earth immediately.

Ahead of him, he saw a stream of Starfleet officers, medical officers, and civilians - Joanna among them - quickly file out of a room following a tirade in McCoy's strident voice:

"What's the matter with all of you? I'm not dead yet! And when I _do_ die, I don't expect you to stand around mourning! I expect you to give ma a wake, and a damned good one, too! But for now, leave an old man and his friend in peace!"

Scotty's steps quickened. What had Joanna been going on about? His old friend sounded as hale and hearty - and as crabby - as ever. He walked into the room, and stopped in shock.

A frail, withered old man lay in a bed that seemed much too big for him. He looked exhausted, it seemed to have taken all of his energy to drive out the unwanted crowd of visitors. From time to time he shifted uncomfortably as even breathing appeared to give him pain. For the first time since Joanna had told him the news, Scotty faced the truth.  


McCoy was dying. Back on the _Enterprise_ , under Jim, they had all faced death so often and cheated it every time that they had seemed to have an air of invulnerability about them. They _couldn't_ die. Apart from Jim, they were all still around. And Jim hadn't died, exactly. He'd disappeared into that energy ribbon. There hadn't even been a body. Scotty still felt that Jim was out there - somewhere. So, when Joanna had said that McCoy was dying, Scotty had come straight away, but deep down he hadn't really believed it. However, now, faced with a pale shadow of McCoy, he had no choice. McCoy was dying.

McCoy's eyes opened and saw him. He said something to the cloaked and hooded person seated beside him.

"Mr. Scott." Scotty peered at the figure.

"Spock? Is that you?" The figure pushed his hood back, revealing the familiar features of the half-Vulcan.

"Yes, Mr Scott. It is I. Doctor McCoy wishes to speak with you."

"Damn Vulcans," McCoy grumbled quietly as Scotty approached the other side of the bed. "I'm dying, and he still acts like an icicle."

"Doan say ye're dyin'." Scotty objected, tears in his eyes as he heard McCoy acknowledge that fact. "Ye canna be dyin'. Ye're an _Enterprise_ man."

"Mr. Scott, your assertion that Doctor McCoy cannot die because he was a member of the _Enterprise's_ crew is highly illogical," Spock stated. "For example, may I remind you of the time when..."

"Damn it, you pointy-eared Vulcan!" McCoy wheezed, jabbing a finger at Spock. "You knew what he meant!" He grimaced painfully.

"Doctor, you should not expend your energy in such a futile manner," Spock replied as McCoy, lay back, exhausted. McCoy glared at him.

"It's my energy, and I'm dying! I'll expend it however I want!" McCoy closed his eyes and lay there, breathing slowly and shallowly. Scotty wanted to speak with him, reminisce about old times before this old friend was lost to him forever, but all he could do was sit and watch. He and Spock watched for what seemed to be a long time. Then, McCoy  
whispered something. His two friends leaned closer.

"Doctor?" said Spock.

"I always wondered what this would be like," McCoy repeated. "Dying, I mean. I've lost count of the number of people I've seen die over the years, and I've always wondered what they felt. I knew what the tricorder told me, and what I saw. I've even come close to dying, myself. But to lie her, to feel life slipping away, to know what breathing your last breaths was like - I've always wondered." Then he fell silent again, the only sound in the room the sound of his painful breathing. Again, Spock and Scotty watched him in silence as the long minutes passed, wondering if their friend had slipped into unconsciousness before he died. Suddenly, McCoy's eyes popped open, and he smiled beatifically.

"It's true!" he whispered.

"What's true?" Scotty asked.

"The end. There is no pain..." Then Doctor Leonard H. McCoy's eyes closed, never to open again.


End file.
